New York goes to five boroughs
After six years of lobbying by Fred Lebow and others, the race leaves Central Park and crosses the whole city, starting on Staten Island at the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge and passing through Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx before finishing in the park. The five-borough form is the template every mass city marathon since has borrowed: a route chosen to display a city to itself, and a municipal decision to stop the traffic while it happens.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- New York City Marathon · route · United States
- Fred Lebow · person · United States · not located
- New York City · city · United States
- The mass-participation city marathon · cultural practice · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
Fred Lebow — Hall of Fame
The first New York City Marathon was run in Central Park on 13 September 1970 with 127 entrants at one dollar each and 55 finishers, Lebow finishing 45th; the five-borough course was achieved in 1976 after years of lobbying. V55 verification basis: read through an attributed search summary; the NYRR page was not retrieved.
New York Road Runners · Partly verified
https://www.nyrr.org/about/hall-of-fame/fred-lebow
Recorded on New York City Marathon
- The first jazz record is made
- Mamie Smith records "Crazy Blues"
- The first New York City Marathon, in Central Park
- New York goes to five boroughs
- New York is remeasured and two world bests are voided
- The first London Marathon
- The World Marathon Majors series is announced
- The first Tokyo Marathon
- Bombings at the Boston Marathon finish line
- The first sub-two-hour marathon in a record-eligible race
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- The first sub-two-hour marathon in a record-eligible race · 2026-04-26
- Bombings at the Boston Marathon finish line · 2013-04-15
- The first Tokyo Marathon · 2007-02-18
- The World Marathon Majors series is announced · 2006-01-23
- The first London Marathon · 1981-03-29
- New York is remeasured and two world bests are voided · 1981–1985
- The first New York City Marathon, in Central Park · 1970-09-13
- Mamie Smith records "Crazy Blues" · 1920-08-10